The Gran Chaco is the largest virgin dry forest left on earth, and lies in the heart of South America. It remains unexplored because it is virtually impenetrable.

An inhumane landscape
     At first glance, the Chaco does not appear to be much more than scrub brush and short trees, stunted by a lack of water. But up close and in person: the Chaco brush contains a dazzling array of thorns, in all shapes and sizes. If the thorn are not enough to deter intruders, an amazing variety of ticks (who sometimes do gather in groups of a hundred or more to wait in ambush for their next victim) provide many more excuses to stay out. Intruders who choose to endure both thorns and ticks to venture into the Chaco will leave with one ever-nagging thought. There is a solitary Chaco insect who goes about it's business in the dark of night, quietly and gently biting it's sleeping victims so as to not wake them. The nagging thought which stays with those who do venture into the Chaco is that this particular insect's quiet gentle bite can cause it's victim to drop dead, without any symptoms or other warnings, twenty or thirty years later. . .
     The biggest deterrent of all though, is that the dry forest of el Gran Chaco has virtually no water in it.

Riddles of Survival
     For those who dare to enter, there is amazing wonder and beauty within the extreme harshness of the Chaco. All forms of life that survive here have adapted to life with less water. The "stunted" manner in which vegetation grows is actually an adaptation that allows plants to survive with less water. Wildlife in the Chaco continues to amaze scientists with an endless supply of impossible riddles. The most obvious of these riddles are the Chaco Tapirs, the largest mammal in South America. Tapirs in the Amazon basin have convinced scientists that tapirs can only live near water. Scientists have reported that tapirs are so dependent on the presence of water that they can only defecate while standing in water. But Chaco tapirs seem to break all the rules. Here tapirs thrive in a very harsh dry landscape, far from any known water. An immediate second riddle raised by therelative abundance of tapirs in the Chaco is: "what on earth do they eat?" While Amazon basin tapirs seem to require lush green vegetation, Chaco tapirs survive in a dry scrub brush full of thorns. But on a modern sobering note, the very life style that tapirs have used to survive in the Chaco, for as long as anyone knows, is failing them in the face of new technology. Every time that a tapir crosses one of the many new roads being built into the Chaco, the tapir leaves tracks that can be followed. Hunters with dogs can follow and kill almost every tapir whose tracks they choose to follow...

Predators
    Within this dry scrub brush Chaco, the very few and distant watering holes seem to be controlled by predators waiting to ambush any animal foolish enough to try to drink. Tracks at the edges of watering holes indicate that while tapirs and peccaries do visit watering holes in groups, albeit rarely, very few of the smaller animals go near them. The common tracks around watering holes are tracks left by pumas and jaguars. My photographs of a deer drinking at a watering hole offered scientists the first scientific proof that deer sometimes do step over jaguar tracks to drink at watering holes in the Chaco.

Wildlife Photography
    Almost all of my photographs of wildlife in the Chaco were made on the one full day I could devote to wildlife. I consider these to be a little extra gift, a little bit extra about the Chaco given to me to share. Two photographers who preceeded me concentrated specifically on wildlife photography but had difficulties finding any wildlife. Unfortunately, (photo buyers & publishers take note) some images being marketed as "wildlife" in the Bolivian Chaco are of animals that do not live anywhere in Bolivia! The Chaco is a harsh and cruel landscape that defies mankind, and more than one "photographer" has left the Chaco saying: "never ever again." Aaah, but but the Chaco is not so different from my African bush, I am very comfortable working in this kind of "inhumane" landscape, and I live for challenges. I continue to pursue opportunities to return to this unique impenetrable and incredible: "last place on earth." This assignment was to document projects related to the Kaa-Iya National Park and it's management.

Izocenos:  the people of el gran Chaco
     The Izoceno people moved to the edges of the Gran Chaco three hundred years ago, and established themselves along the Parapeti River in the Izogog valley. Today, children recount the history of the Izoceno people with dances they perform in the villages, learn about hunting and farming from their parents, and watch bright satelites pass in their star studded sky every night. Adults in the same villages are working with the government of Bolivia and with foreign agencies, to manage their Chaco dry forest and all of the amazing life it contains.

    These photographs are of work being done by the Capitania del Alto y Bajo Izogog, supported bythe Wildlife Conservation Society, and the United States Agency for International Development, in and around the Kaa-Iya National Park, en el Gran Chaco, Bolivia.

     I extend my personal thanks to all who helped me create these images, and to all who have made use of them in publications.

IMAGES AND TEXT ARE COPYRIGHT HAL NOSS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED AND PROTECTED BY LAW. DO NOT SAVE, STORE, COPY, REPRODUCE, E-MAIL, DISTRIBUTE OR TRANSMIT THESE IMAGES --- WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM HAL NOSS.

I thank you kindly,
     Hal Noss
     Photographer
Larger images are available for Review on CD